CBS Miami: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doubled down Tuesday in defending his actions and his ban of mask mandates amid the coronavirus pandemic just as the state once again broke its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations. During an event at Shark Valley in the Everglades, DeSantis gave a reporter a terse response when he was asked about seven children at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital with COVID, two in the ICU. The question was could masks have helped? ‘You’re blaming the kids saying they weren’t wearing masks so they’re in the ICU. With all due respect, I find that deplorable to blame a victim who ends up being hospitalized,’ said DeSantis.”

“He never did give his thoughts on whether he thought masks would have helped and only took three questions. ‘This has been a really negative thing throughout this whole thing, with some of these, quote, experts, some of the media, somebody can contract a highly transmissible airborne virus and they’re viewed as having done something wrong. That’s just not the way you do it,’ he added. This comes after DeSantis banned all school districts in the state from imposing mask mandates saying he wants to let parents to decide whether children will masks in schools. His Executive Order also empowers the state to deny funding to any districts that don’t comply. The governor also touted hospitalizations being lower than they were last summer, but acknowledged they’ve been going up, and he’s watching emergency room visits. ‘We follow that very closely. It went up sharply during most of July, towards the end of last month, it started to stabilize. We’ve basically been plateau, so we’re looking to see that roll over, and when that rolls over, I think you’re doing to see some of the other indicators roll over as well.'”